The Textbook of a Lover - Chapter 9

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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9.
A contract that was one signature away from completion was held up because of a disturbance in the lobby.
The Global Strategy Team nearly lost its trust with Moer headquarters over that absurd incident, but the team’s dedicated efforts ultimately paid off.
Today, nineteen days after the contract was suspended, Hyunsin Department Store finally signed a complete agreement with Moer, the world-renowned luxury brand.
For Hyunsin, it was far more than a simple achievement.
With a top-tier global brand opening its doors, the department store could now widen the gap between itself and its competitors even further.
Given the magnitude of the day, Cha Kyung had skipped the first round of drinks, but he intended to make an appearance at the second to encourage his staff.
As he stepped out of the luxury sedan, the thick, humid air of the midsummer night wrapped around him.
The heat radiating from the asphalt mingled with the oily smell drifting from the bar entrance, creating an acrid stench, yet not a flicker of emotion crossed Cha Kyung’s face.
He checked his wristwatch out of habit, then straightened his shirt sleeves and adjusted his necktie with measured precision.
From every angle, he was the picture of impeccable perfection.
It was as he stepped into the bar.
A blast of cool air conditioning rushed in to dispel the heat, but before it could take full effect, a murmur erupted from the diagonal corner near the entrance.
An employee and a drunk customer were engaged in a scuffle.
“Sir, the kiosk doesn’t use voice recognition. You need to tap the screen…….”
“Soju! One bottle of soju, please!”
A thoroughly intoxicated woman bowed repeatedly at the kiosk, demanding soju. The employee’s face was painted with exasperation.
Cha Kyung clicked his tongue lightly.
Taught propriety by his stern grandfather, he held people who became undone by alcohol in contempt.
Yet something about that drunk woman’s voice nagged at him.
He turned his head toward the familiar-sounding voice, and a face he’d grown recently acquainted with came into view.
Crimson cheeks like an overripe apple, eyelids drooping halfway down in a drowsy cat-like gaze, hands flailing uselessly through the air.
Cha Kyung was at a loss.
The woman slumped dead drunk at the kiosk, ordering soju by voice, was none other than the same woman who had caused a scene at Hyunsin Department Store—the very woman who had made today’s dinner gathering all the more memorable.
‘If I marry that woman, my lifespan increases? Preposterous.’
Cha Kyung recalled the mudang’s words and laughed inwardly at them.
Living with a woman who caused such trouble wherever she went wouldn’t extend his life—if anything, it would shorten it, unless he were extremely fortunate.
Cha Kyung wanted to pass the drunk woman and move on.
But the fact that he absolutely had to enter into a contract relationship with her, combined with his conscience preventing him from leaving a thoroughly intoxicated woman alone, placed him in front of her.
“Soju! One bottle, please!”
“Sir, you need to tap the kiosk to place an order…….”
“Soju, please!”
“Sir…….”
“I’ll place the order for you. One bottle of soju, is that right?”
At those words, Do Ah slowly lifted her half-closed eyes and tilted her head as though confirming someone she’d seen in a dream.
“Executive…… Director? What…… are you doing…… here?”
The moment Do Ah recognized Cha Kyung, the employee beside her let out a heavy sigh of relief.
As Cha Kyung gave a curt nod, the employee’s expression brightened with gratitude, and he withdrew.
Once the employee had completely disappeared from view, Do Ah’s head suddenly pitched forward.
With a dull thud, she toppled onto the table.
“Wake up. Can you not pull yourself together? Do Ah.”
Cha Kyung attempted several times to rouse her, but the body slumped across the table refused to move.
With a short exhale, he eventually helped her up and left the bar.
* * *
The car was silent. Only the crisp sound of Cha Kyung’s fingers tapping the tablet screen and Do Ah’s steady breathing drifted softly through the space.
Cha Kyung paused briefly and glanced at Do Ah sleeping beside him.
This too was a cursed connection, if such a thing existed. Since that first encounter at Hyunsin Department Store, hadn’t they become entangled repeatedly in ways he never intended?
Tonight was no exception.
He’d gone to the dinner gathering only to run into her, and now he was cleaning up her mess instead of properly greeting his staff.
“Mmm…….”
As if sensing his thoughts, a drowsy murmur escaped from Do Ah’s lips.
“Are you coming to?”
Cha Kyung asked in a detached tone. But Do Ah merely shifted her body without responding. He wondered how much longer he’d have to wait.
“Woo Kyung-joon…….”
A familiar name.
After Do Ah caused a scene at Hyunsin Department Store, Cha Kyung had instructed his secretary to look into what had happened between her and that employee.
“The employee in question is indeed affiliated with Hyunsin Department Store. The two are college classmates. It appears that Do Ah has been fixated on him for some time, and she reacted intensely to news of his recent engagement. However, that’s from Woo Kyung-joon’s perspective. Should we investigate further?”
Since there was no need to determine whether what the woman had experienced was truth or fiction, he hadn’t pursued further investigation.
Yet even from the secretary’s account, certain details seemed suspicious.
She claimed to have known him for years, yet suddenly found herself labeled a stalker, and Do Ah’s accusations were far too specific and her emotional wounds far too deep to be mere fabrication.
Do Ah appeared deeply angry with Woo Kyung-joon, her fists clenched, her lips trembling as she continued her angry sleep-talk.
“Woo Kyung-joon…… bad guy…… Kang Na-hee, you’re the same…… I’ll pay you back…… all of you, uuh…….”
As Do Ah tossed about, muttering her determination for revenge, she suddenly shifted direction and tumbled toward Cha Kyung with a thud.
In that moment, warmth and the scent of alcohol flooded toward him.
“Come on, wake up, would you?”
“Nngh…….”
Do Ah, leaning against Cha Kyung’s shoulder and babbling like an infant, was pushed away gently by his hand.
As Cha Kyung put distance between them, he was suddenly struck by what he saw.
Tears were streaming down her cheeks in fat droplets.
Beneath her disheveled hair, her flushed face was already wet with tears, and her long lashes trembled, dampened and glistening.
With each breath, her small nostrils flared slightly.
There was something undeniably endearing about her tearful face.
If only she didn’t cause disturbances in buildings and had this habit of getting dead drunk, her face would be quite appealing.
Wouldn’t it be better if she simply forgot her past and found another man?
But he quickly dismissed the thought as pointless and tried to turn his body away.
Then Do Ah’s eyelids fluttered, and her half-closed eyes slowly opened.
“……Executive Director……?”
As her blurred gaze met his, she tilted her head as if trying to discern dream from reality.
“There’s no way you’d actually be here. Right, Executive Director? This is a dream, isn’t it?”
“Stop. Come to your senses, Do Ah.”
“If I need to come to my senses, then this must be a dream. It is a dream. Since it’s a dream, I’m going to ask—could you please help me? Please?”
A hollow laugh escaped Cha Kyung’s lips. After causing such a major incident and not even properly compensating him, and now she was making requests?
He might have overlooked it had she simply confirmed her commitment to the Contract Dating arrangement.
As Cha Kyung stood bewildered, Do Ah, as if reading his mind, spoke with eyes glistening with tears and a desperate light in them.
“I…… I’ll do the contract dating. So pretend to be my boyfriend and seduce Kang Na-hee for me. Let her dump Kang Na-hee, and let Woo Kyung-joon dump her. Make it exactly like what happened to me, sniffle, please.”
“Do I look like some kind of fixer to you?”
At Cha Kyung’s cold response, Do Ah’s face drained of color in an instant.
Her lips turned ashen, and her fingers trembled as if seized by spasms.
What had he done to provoke such a reaction?
“Listen.”
Bewildered though he was, Cha Kyung steadied Do Ah by the shoulders as she looked ready to collapse.
Just then, a faint voice escaped from Do Ah’s lips.
“Ugh, I…… my stomach…… is churning…….”
So now he was expected to play nurse as well? This was growing tiresome.
Even as he grimaced at the annoyance, he was adjusting her position to ease her nausea when Do Ah’s shoulders suddenly heaved sharply.
Then she pitched her head forward abruptly.
As her long hair came cascading down, Cha Kyung felt an inexplicable dread rising from deep within his chest.
And his premonition proved correct.
“Heeeetch―”
As something rose from within came the sound, and the body pressed against his transmitted a convulsive shudder.
Cha Kyung looked up at the car ceiling with a deflated voice.
“Ah…… What a truly remarkable night this is.”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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